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Upgrading from 16.3.x to Current Version of Smarter Mail
Question asked by Michael O'Brien - 6/18/2022 at 4:13 PM
Answered
Hello, I am moving from Server 2012 (not R2) to new hardware and Server 2019.
What is the best process?  Is there anything special to look out for or is it straightforward?
Thanks for any help.
 

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Zach Sylvester Replied
6/20/2022 at 10:51 AM
Employee Post Marked As Answer
Hello Michael, 

Thank you for reaching out to the community. Every migration is different as people have different file locations, domain sizes IE data to transfer, and amount of downtime that is acceptable. I recommend opening up a ticket so we can discuss how your server is set up and your needs. But please see the following link for general instructions. 



Kind Regards, 
Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
0
Linda Pagillo Replied
6/20/2022 at 1:38 PM
Hey Michael. We have found that best practice is to install the same SM version on the new server that you have on the current server, do the migration to the new server, then upgrade to the latest SM version. 

Were you wanting more details on the actual migration process itself?
Linda Pagillo Mail's Best Friend Email: linda.pagillo@mailsbestfriend.com Web: www.mailsbestfriend.com Authorized SmarterTools Reseller Authorized Message Sniffer Reseller
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Tony Scholz Replied
6/20/2022 at 1:54 PM
Employee Post
Hello Michael, 

I wanted to follow up to Zachs post with a few more details. Going from Smartermail 16.x to the current version ( SmarterMail 100.0.8125 ) will send your file structure through a global change from XML format to JSON formatted files. 

Here is a KB that has more details on what to expect and how to track the progress. 

Other than this the process is pretty much the same as it is for any other version. 


Please let us know if you have any more questions. 

Thank you
Tony Scholz System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Emma Replied
7/6/2022 at 8:41 AM
We have created a replica of our production environment on a VM (same OS, folder names, hardware specs, IIS settings, etc...) - tested pre upgrade (domains listed, admin accounts work, impersonation works).

When attempting to upgrade to latest from SM 16 (following articles provided by SM), we get:
"That domain was not found. Double check your email address"
We then complete these steps (provided by SM support in 2021):

Stop the mail service

Rename the Mail.config.old.xml to mailconfig.xml

rename the settings folder /service/settings

Start the mail services back up


After this we can login but our 900+ domains are missing from SM and they would need to be manually re-attached.
The only way we found to fix this is by also replacing the domainlist.xml file with the one from the SM 16 install and restarting the service.

Smartermail: Is this the intended process for upgrade? If all these items are supposed to happen automatically what are we doing wrong?

We have disabled AV on the SM folders in case this was interfering - same result.
The event viewer application/system logs don't show any error pertaining to SM install.
Cannot find additional logs within SM directories pertaining to upgrade process.
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Zach Sylvester Replied
7/6/2022 at 10:45 AM
Employee Post
Hey Rick, 

Thanks for the follow-up. Can you please open that domainlist.xml file and verify that the paths are correct? If replacing it with the sm 16 domains list works that leads me to think that it may be a pathing issue. To make things easier you should open them side by side and see what's different. 

Please let me know if this helps. If you'd like you can open a ticket or I can open one for you and we at support can take a look at those files for you. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Kind Regards, 
Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
2
Emma Replied
7/6/2022 at 12:11 PM
Zach,

Tony in support helped us out with a screenshare.
The problem was that our SM 16 installation had a service\settings folder within it before the upgrade (exists on our production environment as well).
The existence of that folder was preventing the new files from being created and the conversion process from triggering. 
Removing that folder before running the normal upgrade steps corrected all our issues.

If anyone else is having trouble with logging in or missing all domains post upgrade, make sure that your old install does not have a service\settings folder.
0
Zach Sylvester Replied
7/6/2022 at 4:00 PM
Employee Post
Hey Emma, 

I'm happy that you found a solution! 

Kind Regards, 
Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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